Just thought it would be interesting to recap all the game 7's in franchise history. 1981 Conference Semi's vs. San Antonio. Hou 105, SA 100 I don't remember much about this series, mostly because I was 8 years old and didn't know who Moses Malone or Calvin Murphy was. I suppose it's a bit like the young guys here who don't know Hakeem or Clyde. Strange to think of it. That team had a losing record, shocked the Lakers (hmmmm), and went on to lose to Boston 4-2. 1993 conference semi-s vs. Sonics. Hou 100, Sea 103 OT The Sonic had long established themselves as our nemesis even before this, having knocked us out in a historic triple overtime game a few years prior. The game went on to overtime, with Kenny Smith and Vernon Maxwell missing key open jumpers, but a guy named Ricky Pierce hitting some tough turnaround shots to clinch it. 1994 conference semi's (again!) vs. Phoenix. Hou 104, Pho 94 Of course, this was the birth of clutch city. Or the death of Choke city. After blowing an 18 and 20 point lead in games 1 & 2 at HOME!, the newspaper headline was "Choke City" with a nod to the epic Houston Oilers playoff collapses to the Buffalo Bills and Denver Broncos....Houston finally would have redemption. Hakeem took over in the 4th qtr en route to a 37 point game, and Cassell his a clutch 3 to help open up a game that was very close. 1994 NBA finals vs. NY Knicks. Hou 90, NYK 84 This gave the city of Houston it's first major championship. It was a dogfight to be sure, with Hakeem struggling with swarming D. The guard trio of Kenny Smith, Vernon Maxwell, and Sam I am Cassell responded with 45 points. Vernon Maxwell hit the clincher, a 3 pointer late in the 4th qtr that gave us our biggest lead of the game at that point - 7 points. But in this series, that might as well have been a 20 point lead. Vernon fell back and rolled backwards in joy in what was probably his greatest moment as a Houston Rocket. 1995 conference semi's (again!!!!) vs. Phoenix. Hou 115, Pho 114 Another remarkable series that only extended the legend of clutch city. This time we fell behind 3-1 and went on to win 3 consecutive games to pull this one out. This time, it was Mario Elie's turn to pull off some magic...with the score tied 110-110 with 7 seconds left, Elie hit a 3 right near the Phoenix suns bench, turned around, and blew them the famous, "Kiss of death". Houston would go on to beat San Antonio in 6, and Orlando in 4 to claim it's second title and make Clutch City a dynasty. 1997 conference semi's vs. Sonics. Hou 96, Sea 90 our 4th consecutive game 7 victory, this time one that would put an end to our playoff enemy - the seattle sonics. The sonics never recovered from this series, and it was the end of Shawn Kemp as well. This was a hard fought game, with many heroes. Clyde was outstanding....and Matt Maloney - the ivy league kid from Penn hit a big 3 with a minute left to make the lead 6. The Sonics had battled back from 14 down before that show, lead by Hersey Hawkins. Still they did not give up, and the game was not decided until the final seconds. The game ended with Hakeem dunking emphatically...a symbol that the Sonics double teams had failed to stop him now that he a legitimate power forward in Barkley to prevent interior double teams. 2005 first round vs. Dallas. Hou 76, Dal 116 Up until a few days ago, this was the sole holder of the Rockets worst playoff lost. T-mac and Yao combined for 60 points, the rest of the team: 16. David Wesley was the 3rd highest scorer at 7. It's remarkable to think that Yao and T-mac led a bunch of scrubs (no other players are currently in the NBA from that team) to a game 7 against a very good Dallas team. Mike James, Scott Padgett, Moochie Norris, Ryan Bowen, and Bob Sura all played signficant minutes for this team. Imagine how they might fair against the Lakers without T-mac and Yao! 2007 first round vs. Utah. Hou 99, Utah 103 Whenever you lose a game this close, it hurts. And I think we all know the pain of the last game 7 all too well. A healthy Yao and T-mac were not enough...or rather, a bench of Juwon Howard and Luther Head was not enough! Those were the only two bench players (outside of Deke's 3 minutes) to play. Keep in mind this was a team starting Chuck Hayes and Rafer Alston. This game hurt, because it was close....and t-ma and yao played their hearts out...the game being decided perhaps on one offensive rebound. Afterwards, T-mac would cry during the post game interview. This team deserved respect, they played hard, and lost this series after being up 2-0. It would be the last playoff series Yao and T-mac would play in together....to date. 2009 conference semi's vs. L.A. Lakers. Hou ?, LAL ? Heading into this series, most pundits pegged this as Lakers in 5 or 6. (except sweet lou who said Hou in 6 before Yao went down). No super stars, and before we got to this point, everyone thought the Lakers were the best team on the planet. It is the 9th game 7 in Houston Rocket's history...and a big one. A potential fairy tale one if we win, and one that probably won't be remembered too well except by the diehard fans if we lose.
We did have a good history before the 2000's didn't we? lol. I will wait in anticiptation until Sunday.
Reading about that game 7 with phoenix is insane though. I can only imagine how crazy the game itself was. Wish I'd been old enough to watch/appreciate those runs.
god i hope so. the rockets deserve this. playing there hearts out. adelman deserves to beat phil jackson to. there is no one ill be happier for the adelman and carl landry in this series if they win.
I don't understand why people make a big deal about how teams performed in game sevens in the past. Like, everyone is making a big deal that the Celtics have never lost a game 7 on their home court.... Well, nobody pays attention to the fact that every team, every year is completely different. On top of that, every different team plays an equally different team every year in a game 7 (this is IF they go to game sevens in back to back years...)
Yes, I think we all know it doesn't matter. It's just part of the history of the franchise...and game 7's are special games. I just thought it would be nice to recap that history since they don't happen all that often. Think about, there's only been 9 in the 40 years of the franchise. It's just a nice opportunity for everyone to reminisce about the history, and for younger fans to learn the history. It's not about predicting the outcome.
